Reflective Journaling

Reflection should be a natural process for anyone wanting to improve what they do. Part of a science methods course for preserve educators must include a professional portfolio. In the por... See More

Reflection should be a natural process for anyone wanting to improve what they do. Part of a science methods course for preserve educators must include a professional portfolio. In the portfolio, there should be reflections about professional goals, the NGSS, Common Core concepts, and self-assessment and instructor evaluation. This article provides some awesome samples as well as some examples of evidence for each of the teaching standards in the NGSS. A portfolio might be useful for a first year teachers as well as a preservice teacher.

Preservice Teachers Practice Reflective Teaching

This article explains how one university science methods professor used portfolios to help her preservice students engage in professional growth and reflections. The portfolios showed progre... See More

This article explains how one university science methods professor used portfolios to help her preservice students engage in professional growth and reflections. The portfolios showed progress toward their perservice teachers’ personal goals, the national science teaching standards, and Oklahoma State University’s Core Concept of Integration. Each portfolio also provided a means for self-assessment and instructor evaluation. After students imagined what their ideal teaching position would look like 5 years after graduation, they were asked to answer 5 questions. Two of them were: What will you need to know to perform well in the position? What skills will you need? As students included evidence to document their learning, they completed a brief reflection form explaining how each item represented their progress toward each of their goals. The reflection form and preservice teacher portfolio samples are included in the article. Finally two different assessment formats are available for the science methods instructors to consider. One is an analytical rubric, and the other is in the form of a holistic evaluation.